‘The Battle of the Rivers Pine’
After a long day 1 of the Crusade, the majority of Crusaders slept well, there were some grumblings about the noises being heard at the home base.
After being fed and watered at home base, we boarded the bus for Day 2 of our quest for the mighty BPL crown.
On arrival at the battlefield, we took up our positions to cheer on the mighty Sydney Saints and settled in for another long day.
Game Six v the Sydney Lions – the first Sydney Derby at the BPL.
The first Derby lived up to its billing with a quality match being seen. The first set was drawn at 4 all. The second set saw the Saints deliver a killer blow with a power-play 6 to put the game out of reach. The Saints were back on track.
Game Seven v the Melbourne Pulse – one of our enemies from our Southern neighbour.
We were pitted against the mighty Irishman in Gary Kelly. We scored a big 5 to go on and win the first set and then held on to draw the second set for another victory.
The Saints had won two in a row.
Game Eight v the Melbourne Extreme – another of our enemies from the south.
Our mighty Saints could not handle the conditions of the battlefield and the quality play of the opposition, we were defeated in straight sets.
Game Nine v the team from the island state in the Tassie Tridents.
The Tridents had been cruising along nicely and playing very good team bowls. Our Saints were in for a tough game and they certainly got that. The Tridents dominated early and took a lead until a quality conversion of a power play saw us grab a 6 on the 4th end and held on to win the first set.
Set two was dominated by the mighty Saints and they went into the final end with the Tridents needing a maximum for the game to go to a tie-break. A magnificent conversion by the Tridents skipper saw them gather a four, meaning the Saints held on for straight set win.
Game Ten was our first night session battle and it was up against fellow newcomers in the Geelong Jets.
We were up against a quality line up put together by the Jets with the legendary Scot Paul Foster teaming with the mighty J-L Worsnop, an ex-Saint and the ever-entertaining and devastating Aaron Wilson.
The Crusaders were up and about in support of our mighty Saints, it was a great sight to see our mighty club on the national stage once again, the support of the Crusaders has been brilliant.
In the first set we were outplayed in every aspect and lost the set. We were then faced with an uphill battle to take the game to a tie-break. We kept ourselves in it with a couple of strokes of luck and Sir Ben delivered with his last three bowls to score a powerplay 8 to take the game to the tie-break.
King Jerry won the toss and it was over to the Jets. A tight end ensued, and Sir Jamie played a great conversion to give us a chance. Sir Ben had a small opportunity to win it with his last and he just fell short by a centimetre from achieving this.
A great day by Lady Dawn, Sir Jamie and Sir Ben has seen the Saints show that we are up for the battle.
Another great day tomorrow and we can continue our climb to the top and the finals.